LADIES! When was the last time you played basketball naked, and found yourself perched precariously on the hoop?
Or played pool, also nude, and clambered aboard the table mid-frame to stare moodily at the camera?
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What about tennis? Don’t we all play a quick three sets topless, because nothing says “forty-love” better than two unrestrained double D’s penduluming about.
Sydney Sweeney’s latest ad, for an American betting company, has gone viral with an array of professional athletes slamming the actress for sexualising women in sport.
If you Google the video, you’ll see what I mean. It’s as bad, if not worse, than I described.
“Soft porn,” if you’re being all Mary Whitehouse about it.
Team GB sprinter Amy Hunt took a direct swipe at the Hollywood star live on TV after setting a personal best at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, in Budapest, saying: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women’s sport looks like!”
British running influencer Mary McCarthy made a punchy video slamming Sydney, saying: “We need role models saying, ‘it’s cool to be an athlete’.” She also reminded us that 90 per cent of girls drop out of sport by the age of 16.
Former England rugby player and World Cup winner, Kat Merchant, who now does brilliant work as a body-positive motivational PT, posted: “Sydney Sweeney does not represent women in sport,” alongside a powerful montage of the Red Roses.
In fact, TikTok and Instagram have been flooded over the past 48 hours with fit, inspirational women athletes — some pro, some not — playing sport. So, really, job done.
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And isn’t it somewhat counter-intuitive to pitch women against women. Or, indeed, women against woman.
This is game, set and match, Ms Sweeney and betting firm, Novig — a company that, until last week, very few people outside employee relatives had probably ever heard of.
Love, loathe or fancy her — and, predictably, lots of men do — Sydney is one smart, fiercely ambitious cookie, and playing to her strengths.
Sure, her strengths may be pneumatic rather than, say, a 70kg bench-press, or a sub 17-minute 5k. But just like a professional athlete she realises her God-given natural assets may not be in peak condition in 40 years’ time.
Like a top-level footballer, then, she realises her career may well be short and sweet, and is making hay while she can.
Of course, the Euphoria actress has form for this sort of stuff, finding herself in hot water last year after promoting American Eagle’s “great jeans” campaign.
In a now-deleted video, she cooed: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.”
Did the outrage go on to hinder Sydney’s career? Of course not. And here we are now, months later, talking about her again.
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Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Crucially, and once more, one in the net for Sydney; she owns an equity stake in the company, meaning the more controversy this ad stokes, the more it gets shared, and the more she coins it in.
Cleverly, on Sunday night, the actress — who, two years ago, claimed she felt “dehumanised” when people sexualise her body — uploaded a collection of images featuring some of the biggest names in sports who have also posed nude/nearly nude for shoots and campaigns.
They included Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Megan Rapinoe, and Caroline Wozniacki.
No words needed — Sydney had made her point.
Clearly now OK with the whole dehumanising thing, there was only ever going to be one winner here: Sydney.
SLICE OF THE ACTION
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BYE-BYE M&S’s strawberries and cream sandwich, hello Sainsbury’s apple crumble sarnie.
Inspired by the Japanese shokupan, a fruit concoction nestled between slices of milk bread, these “dessertwiches” are all the rage on TikTok.
In which case, perhaps now is the perfect time for my own take on sweet ’n’ savoury.
Aged 16, I sent Marks & Spencer’s product development team the recipe to my truly unique apple and cinnamon lasagne, along with a 500-word cover letter.
It was the signature dish of the practical element of my Home Economics GCSE, for which I was awarded an A*. *Takes a small bow*
My teacher, Mrs Bancroft – clearly BLOWN AWAY by such gastronomic flair and industry – advised me to offer it up.
I excitedly awaited my big culinary break.
Thirty years later, I remain patiently waiting.
POLITICS is becoming like the Premier League with its fiscal frivolity.
Reform, with its recent £72million donations from billionaires, is the Man City of the Commons, and surely soon, we need a cap on big-money spending . . .
I’M OLD AS TIE
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SEEING Prince George looking like a handsome young teenager – which he is – on his first day at Eton was mildly terrifying.
September 6, 1995: I distinctly remember sitting at my parents’ breakfast table and seeing on the news, George’s father being marched off, similarly suited and booted, for his first day.
I was the same school year as William, and still feel about 13 on the inside.
THRILL OF THE PRAISE
ON Thursday, I watched as The Sun’s Editor in Chief, Victoria Newton, delivered a fantastic keynote-speech on media freedom.
Cheered by journalists past, present and future, the evening also saw the Hugh Cudlipp Student Award handed out.
Imagine my delight, then, when a woman asked if I was “Emma”.
Shaking my head no, another lady turned, looked me up and down, and said, “Well you should be very flattered – Emma Conaghan is the student winner.”
Naturally, I was thrilled. They must have thought I was 23!
Casually, the nice lady added: “Can’t imagine what possessed her to think it might be you.”
MALE teachers will be allowed to supervise female pupils in swimming pool changing rooms, under new NSPCC guidelines.
Not surprisingly women’s rights campaigners claim that instead of changing the wording in the policy from “gender” to “sex” – in line with April 2025’s Supreme Court ruling – the NSPCC “came to its own decision” to remove the line, and safeguarding, entirely.
This appears to smack of dangerous, woke pandering, one which could have terrible consequences.
Young girls, especially those who are unsporty or going through early puberty, likely already hate swimming. This is just an unnecessary additional ordeal.
PAT’S TIME TO SHINE
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PLEASED to hear Patrick Kielty has moved on following his split from Cat Deeley.
And with an absolute pop ICON, no less!
Michelle McManus, apparently, has been helping Pat adjust to bachelor life. Does she croon All This Time to him as the pair settle down for the night, perhaps?
Alas I dicovered it’s a different MM . . . and not she of 2003 Pop Idol fame. Still, good luck to the pair.
Monday 14 September
Como
1 – 0
Live 71′
Parma
Torino
0 – 1
Live 70′
Roma
Bodø/Glimt
1 – 0
Live HT
Sandefjord
Djurgården
1 – 0
Live HT
GAIS
Ypsonas
0 – 0
Live HT
Aris Limassol
Kayseri
3 – 0
Live HT
İstanbulspor
Sirius
1 – 0
Live 39′
Degerfors
Monday 14 September
Gorica
2 – 2
HNL
Varaždin
U Cluj
3 – 0
L1
Oţelul
Sunday 13 September
Flamengo
2 – 1
SEA
Corinthians
Famalicão
1 – 1
PRL
Sporting
Real Sociedad
0 – 3
PRD
Atlético
Mirassol
2 – 2
SEA
Vitória
Standings currently unavailable.
Monday 14 September
Como
1 – 0
Live 71′
Parma
Torino
0 – 1
Live 70′
Roma
Bodø/Glimt
1 – 0
Live HT
Sandefjord
Djurgården
1 – 0
Live HT
GAIS
Ypsonas
0 – 0
Live HT
Aris Limassol
Kayseri
3 – 0
Live HT
İstanbulspor
Sirius
1 – 0
Live 39′
Degerfors
Monday 14 September
Gorica
2 – 2
HNL
Varaždin
U Cluj
3 – 0
L1
Oţelul
Sunday 13 September
Flamengo
2 – 1
SEA
Corinthians
Famalicão
1 – 1
PRL
Sporting
Real Sociedad
0 – 3
PRD
Atlético
Mirassol
2 – 2
SEA
Vitória
Standings currently unavailable.